Metallica’s tribute song to Ronnie James Dio revealed

Mix of four Rainbow songs will be featured on charity tribute album released next month (April)

Metallica‘s tribute to former Black Sabbath, Rainbow and Dio frontman Ronnie James Dio is streaming online.

The US metal band were invited to contribute to the forthcoming Dio covers album ‘This Is Your Life but, instead of picking one song to cover, selected four instead.

Their megamix of ‘Stargazer’, ‘Tarot Woman,’ ‘Kill the King,’ and ‘A Light in the Black’, all by Dio’s band Rainbow, can be heard via Rolling Stone now.

Speaking about his love for Dio’s music and its influence on Metallica, drummer Lars Ulrich said: “[Dio’s] music is so much a part of what’s in Metallica’s DNA, the harder, edgier, blues-based hard rock from the ’70s. It was fairly effortless to put this together, because it’s something that we were all reared on.”

The compilation Metallica have contributed to is released on April 1 and also features tracks by Motörhead, Tenacious D and Anthrax plus one-off supergroups featuring members of Judas Priest, Slipknot and Dio’s band. Ronnie James Dio died of stomach cancer in 2010. Proceeds from the record benefit the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout cancer fund.